


13 Days of Halloween 2020 - Prompt 5 - Wait, I Thought You Were the Ghost

by Zelgadis55



Series: 13 Days of Halloween [6]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: 13 Days of Halloween Writing Challenge, Gen, Ghost Hunting, Ghosts, Haunted House, I thought you were the ghost?, It's all fun and games until someone dies, Phasmophobia, Prompt Fic, allstories, tmnt13days, tmnt13daysoct23, tmntallstories, wait
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27165916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelgadis55/pseuds/Zelgadis55
Summary: Rating: T for language.Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.Summary: 2020 edition. 13 themes. 13 stories. 13 days of Halloween. Stories will be rated individually. '“It only hunts when people are alone.” “Run! Get outta there!”' Mikey and his friends are ghost hunters and tonight, they're not alone. Thoughts, comments and concrit always welcome.
Series: 13 Days of Halloween [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978075
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	13 Days of Halloween 2020 - Prompt 5 - Wait, I Thought You Were the Ghost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sampsonknight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sampsonknight/gifts).



> You can still join the fun for Halloween too! Writers and Artists are welcome and you can do as many or as few of the prompts as you like. For more information, look for sampsonknight on Deviant Art or https://tmnt-allstories.tumblr.com/ The list of prompts is up and has been for about a month.

**Prompt 5**

Wait, I thought you were the ghost?

“Are you ready, dudes and dudette?” Mikey asked, champing at the bit to open the trailer door and get into that haunted house asap! Outside the truck, the rain poured and thunder roared, setting the atmosphere perfectly for a hunt.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Woody replied loudly in his ear. “So who has what? Besides the flashlight, I have the temp gun since we need to record a temperature of under ten degrees and the crucifix.”

Mikey grinned, bouncing on the spot in anticipation. It had taken some serious organisation to get everyone together for another hunt and while unfortunately Donnie couldn't join them this time, they'd managed to convince another brother to fill their ranks. “I've got the spirit box, powerful torch and the video camera. Raph, you grabbed the EMF reader, didn't you?”

“Yeah,” Raph grumbled unhappily. “So why'd I let you talk me into this again?”

“Because you love me,” Mikey answered cheekily, batting his eyelids like a lovestruck cartoon damsel. Raph made a rude sound, prompting Mikey and Angel to chuckle, even Woody gave a slight snort of laughter. “That and it's _fun,_ bro!”

“Yeah!” Angel called out. “It's much better with more people!”

“So why me again?” Raph asked wearily, sounding like he really did not want to be there.

“Because Leo's a killjoy and Don's too busy with a project tonight. Besides, you lost a bet and owe me, bro.”

Raph grumbled under his breath again. “Yeah, okay. What else should I take?”

Mikey shrugged but it was Angel who answered. “Usually depends on the objectives,” she explained. “We need to identify the ghost, record a temperature lower than ten degrees Celsius...”

“Check!” Woody interjected. Mikey nodded sagely.

“... take a photo of dirty water,” Angel continued, reading off the board as if she hadn't been interrupted, “and use a crucifix to stop a ghost from hunting.”

“Okay!” Mikey said cheerfully, “you should probably grab the normal camera and a torch too.”

“Right...” Raph sighed the sigh of the long-suffering and Mikey grinned as he watched Raph struggle to pick up his equipment.

“No, not that flashlight,” Woody cut in, “grab the bigger one on the bottom shelf. It's more powerful and you'll be able to see more with it.”

Raph sighed deeply again and crouched with difficulty to pick up the item Woody pointed out. Mikey tried desperately not to laugh but a quiet snort betrayed him.

“Yeah, you keep that up, numbskull and I'm outta here!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Mikey chortled in delight. “Come on, come on, I got the key. Let's go!”

“What about you, Angel?” Raph asked in confusion as he followed Mikey and Woody down the ramp from the trailer. “What're you brinin'?”

“Oh, I'm staying behind to monitor things here this time,” Angel replied sweetly. “Don't worry, Raphie, I'll keep an eye on your sanity for you,” she laughed.

“Not my sanity you gotta worry about,” he retorted. Mikey could feel him glaring at him.

“I'm not so sure about that,” Mikey laughed as he stopped at the doorstep. He reached out for the door, unlocking it, then pushed it open. The inside was dark so he double-checked his flashlight, confirming it was on. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot to tell you, watch your potty mouth, Raphie, it pisses off the ghosts.”

“I'll piss you off in a minute,” Raph growled and Mikey grinned, not hearing any heat in the easily irritated turtle's voice.

“And stick together,” Woody warned again. “The report says this ghost only reacts to people who are alone.”

“Right, right!” Mikey stepped in through the threshold, shining his torch around the spooky, almost pitch black living room. As he searched, the beam landed on the wall and he saw a small but dirty child's face staring balefully at him. Mikey jumped with a small yelp, his heart racing at the sight.

“What is it?”

Mikey laughed nervously, waving a hand lightly in front of his face in dismissal. “Nothing, bro, just,” he laughed again, a little more confident now, “just a creepy old photo covered in grime.” He moved further in, ignoring the odd creaks and the ever-present ominous ticking of a clock as he searched the room for anything off or out of place.

“Hey, Raph!” Woody suddenly called a few seconds later. “There's a bone over here!”

“So?”

“You've got the camera. Come take a photo, it's evidence.”

Mikey wandered over, following Raph and watching as he struggled with the camera to take the photo. Then he crouched down to pick it up. “Whaddaya think it is?” he asked, waving it about in Raph's face. “A human finger?” he teased.

Raph snorted. “Don't be stupid, dimwit! It's too big to be a finger and way too smooth. Fingers have segments, remember?”

Angel laughed in his ear, obviously enjoying the banter. “There's no sign of any activity yet, guys.”

“Okay! Moving on!” Mikey announced cheerfully as he tried to ignore the creepy vibe this house gave; he felt the chill crawling up his spine.

“Want to go up the stairs or keep exploring this floor first?” Woody asked as he turned slowly on the spot, shining his powerful torch around to light the way.

A burst of lightning flashed, momentarily lighting up the inside of the living room and displaying shadows that so did not belong. The thunder almost immediately followed and the rain, while not as loud as it had been while in the truck, sounded heavier than ever. Mikey's eyes darted around the scene anxiously.

“Where is it usually?” Raph asked, sounding like he just wanted to get this over and done with so he could go do something else.

“It could be anywhere,” Mikey replied distantly. “First floor, second floor, basement, attic, bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, garage. It's all random where the ghost chooses to haunt. But don't think that means it's confined to those rooms. If it goes on the hunt... Anyway, we may as well just check this floor properly first, before moving on. Come on, let's go this way,” he directed, walking towards the nearest door. He reached out nervously, pushing it open, then waited for his brother and friend to join him. Once they did, he stepped inside to find they'd discovered the kitchen. His favourite room in the whole wide world. Only, at home and the houses of friends, not here in this creepy, nightmare place.

“Guys, I've got activity,” Angel suddenly warned, her voice coming loud and clear over their headsets. “It's only about a three though.”

His heart raced in excitement as he felt that familiar thrill of fear and he nodded, even though he knew Angel couldn't see it and raised his torch. Everywhere he shone the light, the walls were filthy, the wallpaper torn and hanging in strips and the benches covered in suspicious brown stains. Even as his hand shook slightly, he switched out the powerful torch he carried for the spirit box, turning it on along with his less powerful shoulder-mounted flashlight instead. He spoke into the spirit box, hoping no-one could hear the faint quiver in his voice that he couldn't quite hide; things were getting serious at last, “Hello? Is anybody there?”

All he heard in reply was the crackle of static.

“It only hunts when people are alone, remember, Mike?” Angel pointed out, her voice low and throaty as she deliberately worked to spook him further.

Mikey pulled a face, then grinned uncomfortably as his heart-rate picked up speed ever-so-slightly again. “Yeah, I remember,” he gulped.

“The temperature dropped!” Woody suddenly cried in excitement. “I got an eight!”

Mikey blew out a slow breath, trying to calm himself as he walked to the sink. For a moment, he stood there looking at it, then reached out and turned on the taps, watching carefully as the sink quickly filled. “Dirty water,” he breathed. “This is the room for sure. Raph? You're on again, bro!”

Raph wandered slowly over, looking a bit like a drunkard with his wobbly path, then took a photo of the water, handling the camera far more adeptly than the last time.

“We've got two objectives complete!” Angel's voice rang out as she obviously checked the information board. “Temperature below ten and a photo of dirty water!”

“Great... so what was the deal with the bone if it wasn't an objective then?” Raph asked, sounding kind of annoyed. Mikey could just picture his expression, eyebrow ridges raised questioningly with that slight promise of smacking if the answer was stupid.

“Bonus points. More payout,” Mikey replied when suddenly a creak sounded, followed by a click. He whirled in place to see the door they'd come through now closed and no one near it. His blood ran cold. “It closed the door on us!” he squeaked frantically.

“Calm down, bonehead,” Raph rolled his eyes.

“Activity's at a four but you're all together so you're fine,” Angel, the voice of reason, warned.

“Right, right,” Mikey breathed again. Sometimes, he really wondered why he did this to himself, just walking fully cognisant and willingly into places like this when he knew full well they gave him the raging heebie-jeebies to the point where he had to sleep with the light on afterwards.

If he could even sleep at all, that was.

He looked around to see a bench with a clear view of the room and walked over. As he did, he switched the spirit box for the video camera and turned it on, then placed it down, rotating it for the best view of the kitchen. “Woody? How's the temp, bud? Has it hit freezing at all?”

“Nope!” Woody replied, popping the 'p'. “The lowest I've seen is four.”

“Okay,” Mikey frowned. “Raph, can you switch to the EMF reader, turn it on and place it in front of the video camera?”

“Sure,” Raph replied, reluctantly walking towards him. Once he arrived, he struggled for a moment, accidentally dropping the reader and having to crouch down to pick it up out of the garbage bin. Then, more carefully, he placed it in front of Mikey's camera.

Woody quickly joined them, switching out his temperature gun for the crucifix. “We still don't have any evidence yet,” he warned. “The camera will help us if it can pick up some spirit orbs or the EMF reader goes off but it won't be enough to identify the ghost. We still need to try the spirit box again but you have to be alone, Mikey, it won't react when we're all there too.”

Alone? He _hated_ being alone! Mikey eyed Woody suspiciously. “So what? You're offering me up as a sacrifice?” he accused, folding his arms in disbelief that his best friend would betray him so. “After all we've been through together? Dude! So uncool!”

“Hey, it sounds good to me!” Raph said cheerfully. Mikey could _hear_ the evil grin in his traitor brother's voice.

“Et Tu, Raphie? Fine,” he grumbled in discontent, “but you're both traitors, you know!”

“Don't worry, Mikey,” Woody laughed, “Raph and I will wait literally just outside the door, ready to run in and save your damsel shell while you stand inside the kitchen. Alone. Then you can do your thing and draw it out. We'll then rush in and save you with our numbers and hopefully get that objective with the crucifix in the process.”

“Just don't fuckin' piss it off,” Raph mocked.

“Activity spike to seven!”

“I hate you both.”

Raph just laughed.

“Nuh, you love us and you know it,” Woody corrected with a smile in his voice.

“I don't believe you,” Mikey retorted, glaring at Woody.

“Back down to five... three... holding steady at two,” Angel informed them.

“Let's just get this over with before I lose my nerve,” Mikey grumbled, feeling as though he was trudging to his own funeral.

The trio made their way back to the kitchen door and Woody opened it and stepped out, followed a little too-quickly by Raphael. Mikey swallowed nervously as he turned around, peering into the darkness as he brought up the spirit box once more. Hesitating, he swallowed nervously a couple of times and then finally, ready to bolt at the slightest provocation, he spoke into it. “Hello? Is any... anybody there?”

“ _Hehssshhh!”_

Mikey jumped, whipping his head around. “Did anyone else hear that?” he asked quickly. “Was that on the spirit box or...”

“We got a seven!” Angel warned, her voice tight with tension. “Mike, be really careful out there. I don't want you to die on us.”

Mikey scowled fiercely. “So not helping, dudette!”

Her only response was to laugh and he grumbled incoherently to himself.

A few moments passed. “Activity is dropping again.”

Mikey breathed deep, trying to lower his tension, then he spoke into the spirit box again. “Hello? Do you want to hurt me?”

“Yes!” A voice growled in his ear and Mikey screamed. Raphael laughed madly, making Mikey realise it was _him_ that said that.

“Geez, Raph! Don't do that, you bastard!” Mikey whined pathetically. “I thought you were the ghost!”

“ _Die!”_ a low, garbled voice suddenly hissed.

“ _Ten! Ten! It's a ten!”_ Angel screamed. _“Run! Get outta there! Hide!”_

Suddenly, the door slammed again and Mikey whirled around, grabbing at it but it was locked with Mikey on one side and Woody with the crucifix on the other and it _wouldn't open!_ Mikey's eyes widened in terror as a low, broken crackling sound filled his hearing and a dark, wet-looking and horribly misshapen face engulfed his vision, closing in on him fast!

“ _I can't!”_ Mikey panicked, looking around frantically. _“There's nowhere **to** hide and it's already seen me!”_

“ _Mikey!”_ Woody screamed hysterically. _“I can't open the door!”_

“ _Shellshellshellshellshell!”_ Mikey moaned in fear, his vision turning blurry as something wrapped around him, squeezing tighter and tighter and moving closer and closer 'til the horrifying features were directly in front of his boggling eyes.

“The EMF is at level five!” Angel cried in excitement. “And there's ghost orbs in the room!”

She! She just! He was _dying!_ Being _murdered_ while on the same communications line as her and she just... Abruptly, a final cracking sound filled his hearing and his vision suddenly cleared to see the room in bright, white and grey wispy tones. Despite the lack of colour, he could see everything. Far better than he'd been able to see while using the torch. Numbly, Mikey looked down to find himself floating over the twisted remains of his broken body.

“You killed me,” he said flatly. “You got me murdered!”

“Oh don't be so dramatic, Mikey!”

“Let's go, Raph!” Woody pressed urgently. “We've got the evidence we need and there's no point in us dying too.”

“Yeah, o-okay.”

Mikey couldn't believe it. He stared ahead of himself, mouth agape in shock. They were just _leaving_ him!

“Hey!” he snapped when he finally found his voice again. “ My body! My beautiful body! Aren't you coming back for it?”

“Nope!” Woody immediately retorted. “Too dangerous! You're dead and we're not joining you in the afterlife!”

“But...but... no turtle left behind!” Mikey whined, floating through the door and chasing after them as they _ran_ from the dark house into the rain like cowards.

“Pft! He's human and not ninja, he's not beholden to that rule!” Raph scoffed derisively.

“Yeah? So what's your excuse, Raphie?” Mikey accused in disbelief. “Why are _you_ just leaving me?”

He heard the smirk in his brother's voice as he mockingly paraphrased Mikey from earlier in the night. “Because I know you love me and you wouldn't want me to suffer the same fate as you,” he cackled.

“Well, you better hold me a damn funeral!” Mikey demanded as Woody and Raph reached the ramp to their mobile base. “And it better be a good one! I better be able to hear sincerity in your voices!”

“Well, you can bet it won't be open casket!” Woody countered. “Not with the gruesome way you just died!”

“You didn't even _see_ my body!” Mikey wailed, following them inside. “It's on the other side of the kitchen door! Which was locked!”

“That's so cute! Thinking there'll be a casket at all,” Angel laughed in delight as she welcomed back the living members of their team. “You know full well we can't get your body back.”

“You know I'm gonna haunt you guys forever, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, even dead, you're way too annoyin' which only proves how we'll never be rid o' ya,” Raph sneered as he reached the computer monitor in the truck. The camera view on it showed the kitchen with occasional floating spirit orbs and a dead body by the door. “Hey, look! There ya are, Mikey! That's a good look!”

Mikey scowled again. “You suck, Raphie.”

“Anyway, the ghost was a Jinn. Have you guys filled out your journals?” Angel asked seriously.

“Yep!”

“Yeah.”

“Mikey?”

He sighed. “Give me a sec,” he said flatly, bringing up his journal to fill it out. After inputting the evidence and identifying the ghost, he answered. “Okay, I'm done.”

At that moment, Angel closed the trailer door and he heard the sound of the engine start as the truck left the haunted house forever.

“Look on the bright side, Mikester, at least you'll get insurance.”

Mikey scowled again as the game ended and the black loading screen appeared.

“So, we goin' again?” Raph asked eagerly. “I wanna see Mikey die again. That was actually pretty fun!”

-:-

That night, Mikey laid on his plastron in the top bunk of his bed, gazing towards the small lamp across the room, eyelids hooded with sleepiness. Against his will, they slowly slid closed yet again and once more, a dark, wet-looking, horribly misshapen face appeared in his vision. He couldn't get his eyes open again fast enough.

“Damn Raph,” he moaned softly. There was no way he'd be sleeping after that tonight so giving up, he wearily climbed out of bed and went in search of Donnie, hoping he'd welcome company as he worked.

-:-

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This story is not the one I originally envisioned for this prompt but as sampsonknight, her daughter and I finished playing a couple of games of 'Phasmophobia', I became inspired by the idea of Mikey playing this spooky game. While the story does not follow any specific scenarios we have played, it was inspired by the fact sampson and her daughter murdered me (it did not happen anything like in this story, however). As it happened, I had a different ending in mind where Raph would be the victim of a Mikey prank bu~t the story had a life of its own and turned out how it turned out instead. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one and am glad I did not finish the story I had previously started instead XD
> 
> 'Phasmophobia' is a 4-player (you can play with fewer people) ghost-hunter co-op available on 'Steam' which uses voice recognition to interact with and 'trigger' the ghosts and yes, swearing is hard-wired into the game to trigger the ghosts into a homicidal frenzy. We have not tried that yet. It can be played with either a computer or VR. From the reviews I read, VR users have a little more range of motion and ability to handle objects. 
> 
> Mikey in this story was using VR while Raph played on a computer. If I'd gone with my original ending, this would have shown. I'm still kinda tempted to write up the other version and the only thing stopping me is the fact I need to come up with and write stories for the other prompts XD


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